The Price of Freedom
by Tofu-Monstrosity
Summary: Beast Boy finds Starfire upset about something so he takes it upon himself to figure out what it is. Set right after "Betrothed" to fill a few plot holes. BBstar friendship.


**I noticed a few plot holes in "Betrothed" that I thought I would fill. Set right after "Betrothed" just a little BBStar friendship story.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans, if I did, it would never have gotten cancelled.**

**Price of Freedom**

Beast Boy tries to regain his composure. He usually gets sick after space travel and this time was worse. He leans over the porcelain throne and heaves again. He thinks it was the weird space alien food he ate. He didn't want to even go to Tamerian but he knew that it was for Starfire. In fact, he hasn't seen her in a while. Beast Boy wiped the last of vomit from his mouth and stood up slowly. It's weird for Starfire to not be zooming around the halls of the tower, especially when she knew that someone was sick. Beast Boy decided to investigate.

IN fact, she's been acting weird ever since they got back from Tamerian. Beast Boy can understand the whole "sister taking the throne and trying to marry you off to a pile of Jell-O" thing, but he doesn't think that's what's bugging her.

Beast Boy finds himself at her door and goes to knock but a sob stops him. He places his ear to the door and hears stifled sobs. "Ok Beast Boy, what do you do here?" He asks himself. "You can go in and see what's wrong, and potentially get in trouble with Robin, or you could walk away right here and pretend I was never here…" Beast Boy contemplates out loud before breathing in a deep breath and knocking on Starfire's door. "Hey Star, you ok?" he asks. There was silence before the door slides open slowly.

Starfire stands there. Stands. Not floats like normal. Her hair is ratty and her eyes are a reddish green, her skin is pale and her cheeks are a tear-stained red. Beast Boy blinks a few times to make sure he's seeing this right. She looks like hell quite simply.

"I uh…" He stammers, "Heard you crying and I wanted to know if anything was wrong" He nervously rubs the back of his neck.

"Nothing is wrong" Starfire sniffles a bit, trying to hide it. Beast Boy doesn't fall for it.

"You're a terrible liar." He states flatly. Starfire looks at him in fake horror.

"Friend, I assure you nothing is…" She starts to say before Beast Boy cuts her off.

"You're not floating, you always float." He states, pointing to her feet, firmly on the floor.

"I…I uhm…" Starfire looks desperately for an answer but fails.

"Mind telling me what's wrong?" Beast Boy asks, his usual happy-go-lucky façade has fallen like hers.

"I suppose." Starfire sighs and leads him into her room. Closing the door behind her. Beast Boy notices the condition of the room. Usually very neat and tidy it is a mess. Her clothes are all over the floor, her lamp is knocked over. Silkie's bed is toppled over with him nowhere to be seen. Her sheets are all over the place and her curtains, usually always open to let the sun in, are tightly shut.

"It looks like a storm blew through here" Beast Boy tries to lighten the heavy mood. His euphemism is lost on her. He tries to move past it and keeps going. "So, mind telling me what's wrong?" He asks, sitting on her bed. She sighs.

"You remember last week when we went back to my home planet?" She asks. Beast Boy snickers a bit, recalling only a few minutes ago when he was praying to the porcelain god after the bit of her native food.

"Yeah" He responds.

"Well, there is something in which I did not tell you…" She bites her bottom lip. Beast Boy tilts his head.

"What would that be Star?" He asks, intrigued and wondering if Robin should be handling this.

"You remember when we first met?" She looks at him, he can see tears start to swell in her eyes.

"Yeah I do" Beast Boy responds.

"I told you what I was before that. A prize sent to the Citadel by the Gordanians." Beast Boy nods at her brief summary. "I did not want to tell you why." She clutches her arms and looks away but continues speaking. "I was a peace prize. Peace on the planet Tamerian in exchange for the youngest daughter of the emperor."

"Star…" Beast Boy came to the realization it really should be Robin dealing with this, maybe even Raven. Starfire continues.

"When I was not received by the Citadel, they grew angry and attacked Tamerian again. They killed the Emperor and Empress of Tamerian." She stated blatantly.

"That means you're…." he trails off.

"yes. They are." She mutters. Beast Boy gets off of the bed and places a hand on her shoulder. She instinctively flinches. "they only recently killed them, the Tameranian army was able to wipe them out before they caused anymore damage to the planet but their ships remained. In vengeance my sister constructed the betrothal so she would be the sole Emperor of Tamerian." Starfire finished her tale. Beast Boy could do nothing but stand there like an idiot.

"Starfire, I'm so sorry, I wish I knew this earlier." Beast Boy tried to console his friend.

"It is all right. I do not expect your sympathies." Starfire states, looking back at him. Her color starting to return as she opens the curtains.

"You know this doesn't change anything between us. We're still friends and I don't want you to think that I…" Beast Boy starts on a heartfelt confession when her bone-crushing hug cuts him off.

"I am glad to have you as a friend Beast Boy." She smiles and lets him go after a few moments.

"Anything I could do to help." He smiles and tries to re-inflate himself from the air that was taken in her hug. He notices her floating off the floor again and this makes him smile. "Let's go see what the others are up to" He leads her out of her room and closes the door.


End file.
